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Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 10/12/2025
by Kristen Parrott, curator
Ames, Cook, Elk Run, Manning, Sherry, Spring Valley. Do you recognize these names?
They were all names of country schools located in the south-central part of Vernon County. Our region was once dotted with little country schoolhouses. For about 100 years, from the 1860’s to the 1960’s, the country school was an important part of life in this rural area. Today almost all of the country schools have closed, but often the old buildings are still standing.
Our annual country schoolhouse road tour will be held on Saturday, October 18, and this year’s tour covers south-central Vernon County, including the schools named above. The self-guided tour will lead you past remaining schoolhouses, and past the sites of schools that are now gone.
Start your tour at the historic Foreaker School in Viroqua, located at 606 W. Broadway St., between 9AM and 1PM on October 18. For $10, you can pick up the guidebook and map, and then drive along a beautiful route full of fall colors through the Towns of Viroqua, Webster, Liberty, and Kickapoo. The individual sites will be marked for the day with little red schoolhouse signs.
The Foreaker is the only school that will be open for touring inside. Originally located in the Town of Liberty, it is now operated as a one-room school museum by the Vernon County Historical Society. You are welcome to sit at a school desk, write on a slate, and look at old textbooks. Also at the Foreaker you will have the opportunity to purchase our recent book, Country Schoolhouses of Vernon County, Wisconsin, for $25.
The tour will include about 20 schools. Check out our website, or call us at 608-637-7396, for more information.
This week our country is marking Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, both on October 13. Columbus is one of the most famous foreign explorers to come to the Americas. When he arrived, Indigenous people had already been living in the Americas for tens of thousands of years. The Ho-Chunk and the Menominee peoples both have origin stories that place them in Wisconsin since time immemorial, and Indigenous Peoples Day is a Wisconsin state holiday. You can learn more about Indigenous peoples in the Americas from the excellent website of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Save the date: Sunday, November 9 will be the day of the Vernon County Historical Society’s annual recognition dinner. The event will begin at noon in the dining hall of the Viroqua United Methodist Church, and will feature guest speaker James Marten talking about his new book, The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment. Tickets are $16 each. More details next week.
Manning School once stood at the intersection of
Harrison Hollow Rd. and Larson Rd., Town of Kickapoo, but is now gone.
For the week of 10/5/2025
by Kristen Parrott, curator
The Vernon County Museum and History Center is now on its October hours. We are open to the public Monday through Friday, 11AM to 4PM, or by appointment.
The annual road tour of Vernon County country schoolhouses has been planned for Saturday, October 18. This self-guided tour will visit some of the remaining former country schoolhouses of the area. Some school buildings are now gone, but the tour will indicate the sites where they once stood.
This year’s tour will cover the south-central part of Vernon County. The route begins in Viroqua and travels southeast through the hills and valleys of the Towns of Viroqua, Kickapoo, Liberty, and Webster.
To start the tour, pick up a tour guidebook and map that day, October 18, between 9AM and 1PM at the historic Foreaker School, 606 W. Broadway in Viroqua. The school is located right next to the historic St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There is a suggested donation of $10 for the guidebook.
The Foreaker School was originally located in the Town of Liberty. It was built in 1888 on Pea Vine Hill. After the school closed in 1960, the building was purchased by Vernon County, moved to Viroqua, and is now operated as a country schools museum by the Vernon County Historical Society. It will be a special place to start this interesting tour.
With guidebook and map in hand, you can then drive the tour of about 20 country schoolhouses and sites, enjoying the fall scenery and learning about rural architecture. Copies of our recent book, Country Schoolhouses of Vernon County, Wisconsin, will be available for sale for $25 at the Foreaker School that day, if you would like additional information.
Installation of the heating and air-conditioning units continues at the History Center. They are being installed at various locations around the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, in exhibit halls. We look forward to having heat in the exhibits this winter!
Elk Run School, Town of Liberty, in 1941.
This school building is still standing and will be on the October 18 tour.
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